thank you very much
I always find it very moving and very
humbling when someone can actually give
you a very personal touch with an
introduction so I thank you very much
for that finding courage to be an ally
in the fight for rights when I think
about the work that I’ve done over the
years and people have called me fearless
the reality is I’m not fearless I
experience a lot of fear past and
present but I find the courage to go
beyond the fear that I may be feeling in
the moment and so today I want to talk a
little bit of both that you know living
at the living with the intersection of
oppression so I personally live with
race gender oppression but I also know
about oppression based on age based on
ability based on socioeconomic class
based on gender gender identity sexual
orientation you know all of those isms
and then if you go to the second layer
oppression based on family status
citizenship status all of those things
impact on the lives of people every
single day and when we think about
oppression one of the things I think
that really helps us and it helps help
us move forward is actually the role of
allies and allies help us in that in
that whole movement I spent I have spent
a lot of time and especially in my early
days of my career I’ve spent a lot of
time focusing on oppression focusing on
my race and gender oppression race
gender and class oppression as if that
was all of who I am as if that was all
that I embodied I really started my work
as social activist as an anti-racist
and focus there and then one day an ally
that I admired a great deal talked to me
about my privilege and I was in a state
of shock a state of denial and probably
a little bit of anger
I mean who gives this who gave this
person permission to tell me that I had
privilege and then he started to tell me
about the privilege I held at the time I
was a doctoral student at University of
Sheffield in England I had a job waiting
for me back here at Dalhousie I had a
class position as a Canadian citizen I
could travel anywhere I wanted to in the
world as a heterosexual female I had
heterosexist privilege as what I called
a temporarily able-bodied person I was
physically able to do all of the things
I wanted to do mentally able to do all
of the things that I wanted to do I was
living with incredible privilege and if
I wasn’t owning the privilege you can
rest assured that I certainly wasn’t
using it and not using it in a way that
could help move others along that was a
transformative moment for me personally
and I think it also transformed my
politics transform my work transformed
my my mission as a social justice
advocate and it led me to this work what
I call the triple a paradigm a social
justice approach to challenging
oppression so one of the things that I
realized that we need these these triple
A’s these three A’s awareness if we’re
not aware of the oppression that’s
around us that we witness that we even
experience Harriet Tubman was asked once
how many slaves did you free and I think
she said something to the effect I’ve
freed a thousand but I could have freed
a thousand more if they’d known they
were enslaved so building awareness both
for those who live with oppression
and also for those who witness it that
awareness is key to moving along key to
social change and the next step then is
really analysis if we don’t develop an
analysis of those issues then we’re
bound to make mistakes we’re bound to do
missteps and once you have a clear
in-depth critical analysis then the
third step is action now I’ve been that
person who’s gone from awareness to
action you become aware of something and
you think you know this is not right I’m
going to do something about it and
you’re bound to make mistakes and I’ve
made those mistakes and so getting to
that place of action after you’ve done
the analysis and so sometimes it takes a
bit more time sometimes it takes more
time than perhaps you think you have but
it’s so important to take the time to go
through the triple a if I’m building on
that work I would add a fourth a now and
that’s the the the a for allies
I believe that allies are so significant
to this journey of social justice allies
help help us allies help those who are
marginalized move forward and one of my
students shared with me as from social
media a woman named Kayla Reed wrote an
acronym about an ally and I’ve added and
built on that so she says a for
awareness being aware being aware being
aware of what’s required
so a for awareness Ella learn and listen
learn and listen learn and listen from
the oppressed so allies really you don’t
need to take affront you don’t have to
be in the front row you don’t need a
front row seat to be an ally you don’t
need a front row seat to someone else’s
oppression so listen and learn
so allies need to listen and learn the
second L leverage your privilege and I
add to that leverage your privilege and
your power so as I was saying earlier I
wasn’t leveraging my privilege if I
wasn’t even acknowledging that I had
privilege and so it’s so important no
matter where we are no matter what
social location we occupy what space we
occupy if we’re if we’re in a place
where we have some privilege and we have
some power is what we do with it we
don’t have to apologize for the
privilege that we hold we don’t have to
apologize for being in positions of
power it’s what we do with it that
really matters that’s where the
accountability comes in and then why
yield the floor you know sometimes when
allies are working with people who are
marginalized and when people empower
themselves and sometimes there’s a lot
of anger and people can be triggered by
that they can find themselves in a space
of discomfort around people’s anger
there’s a lot of social injustice that
ought to make us angry and we need to be
willing to just sit and listen and learn
and sometimes we need to listen and
learn through that place of anger and
know that that’s alright
and that is where courage comes in it
takes a lot of courage to be an ally it
takes a lot of courage to be willing to
just sit and listen it takes a lot of
courage to learn from the oppressed from
the marginalize it takes a lot of
courage to take a stand and fight for
right
at a time when maybe you’re alone maybe
you’re the only person speaking this
truth but it takes a lot of courage to
do that but I think you need to do it
and when we’re doing it we need to be
able to work with allies we need to pull
our allies in to help us in that fight
for rights it takes courage to be a
change leader if you think about it
maybe those who of you who are here who
already in leadership positions if you
want to change things it takes courage
to change things it takes so much
courage so I want to invite you to find
the places and the spaces and the people
find the things that give you courage
find the things that inspire you you
know one of the things that really
inspires me is actually my spirituality
spirituality gives me courage
faith over fear and actually I was in
church this morning I attend East
Preston United Baptist Church with
Pastor laQuita Porter and she’s had a
whole series since the beginning of
January on faith and one of the key
messages is faith over fear and that’s
the message I carry with me every single
day using that faith to overcome the
fear that I feel to be a change leader I
believe that we all need to lead the
change that you want to see in this
world you have to lead the change you
want to see not wait for someone else to
do it not wait for someone else to stand
up and be the change leader you witness
something you become aware of something
you analyze something lead the change
that you want to see and the final word
on this things change when we do
something when we don’t do anything we
can get be guaranteed that things will
continue as they are and if you’re
unhappy
with something that’s happening in your
world remember that things will change
when you do something about it thank you
[Applause]
so this past December I attended the
30th anniversary of the North End Parent
Resource Center and one of the people
that was there was Canada’s
parliamentary poet laureate dr. George
Eliot Clarke and he was reading some of
his poems and I said to him I said you
know I’d like to ask you to write a poem
about Viola Desmond that I want to read
in the Senate and and he did and I read
that poem on Wednesday International
Women’s Day and I deliberately did not
want to do it during Black History Month
yes she’s an African Nova Scotian she’s
also a woman so is that
intersectionality piece and she is
certainly one of the people that has and
continues to inspire me so I’ve asked
the organizers if I could read their
poem and share that with you here today
and the title on political economy or
the ballot of Viola Desmond it’s
impossible proof the $10 bill supporting
her face demonstrates crime pays but
first the heroine has to halt her she
has to be jailed because she didn’t pay
the penny tax required to sit where
Caucasians folks sit in that segregated
cinema blacks in 1946 were deemed unfit
to share the same seating at the
Roseland theater in New Glasgow and
we’re told some rolls are White’s only
who could withstand voila viola worth
her weight in gold Desmond was a
beautician but her change wasn’t
cosmetic she wouldn’t give two cents to
back racism that was strange it wasn’t
how most coloreds had to live Sonos nova
scotia swiftly saw her jailed tried her
very guilt not for breaking racist rules
but only because she failed to pay the
province that one cent the province was
taking to support whites only rules are
plenty as if New Scotland was South
Africa viola
convicted was fined $20 that’s her
beauty spot I tell you her two cents
made a real difference may change begin
to happen nine years before Rosa Parks
sparked the civil rights movement
stateside a century past civil war as an
entrepreneur she sought value and profit
in beauty sis Desmond did but she strove
for justice because it’s true beauty
turns ugly where justice is hid her bill
is disappointingly smooth a one can’t
feel her skirts scrapes and scabs that
she suffered to bring about a better day
whose dawn would usher in equality still
she’s the first Canuck femme and person
of color to see her face
integrate Canadian currency partisan of
justice ponder her interest rate from
two cents to ten dollars an increase of
fifty thousand percent also note her
royal pardon miracles don’t cease Royal
Mint is viola Desmond now find the
courage to be an ally in the fight for
rights in this age of uncertainty thank
you
you
[Applause]
I always find it very moving and very
humbling when someone can actually give
you a very personal touch with an
introduction so I thank you very much
for that finding courage to be an ally
in the fight for rights when I think
about the work that I’ve done over the
years and people have called me fearless
the reality is I’m not fearless I
experience a lot of fear past and
present but I find the courage to go
beyond the fear that I may be feeling in
the moment and so today I want to talk a
little bit of both that you know living
at the living with the intersection of
oppression so I personally live with
race gender oppression but I also know
about oppression based on age based on
ability based on socioeconomic class
based on gender gender identity sexual
orientation you know all of those isms
and then if you go to the second layer
oppression based on family status
citizenship status all of those things
impact on the lives of people every
single day and when we think about
oppression one of the things I think
that really helps us and it helps help
us move forward is actually the role of
allies and allies help us in that in
that whole movement I spent I have spent
a lot of time and especially in my early
days of my career I’ve spent a lot of
time focusing on oppression focusing on
my race and gender oppression race
gender and class oppression as if that
was all of who I am as if that was all
that I embodied I really started my work
as social activist as an anti-racist
and focus there and then one day an ally
that I admired a great deal talked to me
about my privilege and I was in a state
of shock a state of denial and probably
a little bit of anger
I mean who gives this who gave this
person permission to tell me that I had
privilege and then he started to tell me
about the privilege I held at the time I
was a doctoral student at University of
Sheffield in England I had a job waiting
for me back here at Dalhousie I had a
class position as a Canadian citizen I
could travel anywhere I wanted to in the
world as a heterosexual female I had
heterosexist privilege as what I called
a temporarily able-bodied person I was
physically able to do all of the things
I wanted to do mentally able to do all
of the things that I wanted to do I was
living with incredible privilege and if
I wasn’t owning the privilege you can
rest assured that I certainly wasn’t
using it and not using it in a way that
could help move others along that was a
transformative moment for me personally
and I think it also transformed my
politics transform my work transformed
my my mission as a social justice
advocate and it led me to this work what
I call the triple a paradigm a social
justice approach to challenging
oppression so one of the things that I
realized that we need these these triple
A’s these three A’s awareness if we’re
not aware of the oppression that’s
around us that we witness that we even
experience Harriet Tubman was asked once
how many slaves did you free and I think
she said something to the effect I’ve
freed a thousand but I could have freed
a thousand more if they’d known they
were enslaved so building awareness both
for those who live with oppression
and also for those who witness it that
awareness is key to moving along key to
social change and the next step then is
really analysis if we don’t develop an
analysis of those issues then we’re
bound to make mistakes we’re bound to do
missteps and once you have a clear
in-depth critical analysis then the
third step is action now I’ve been that
person who’s gone from awareness to
action you become aware of something and
you think you know this is not right I’m
going to do something about it and
you’re bound to make mistakes and I’ve
made those mistakes and so getting to
that place of action after you’ve done
the analysis and so sometimes it takes a
bit more time sometimes it takes more
time than perhaps you think you have but
it’s so important to take the time to go
through the triple a if I’m building on
that work I would add a fourth a now and
that’s the the the a for allies
I believe that allies are so significant
to this journey of social justice allies
help help us allies help those who are
marginalized move forward and one of my
students shared with me as from social
media a woman named Kayla Reed wrote an
acronym about an ally and I’ve added and
built on that so she says a for
awareness being aware being aware being
aware of what’s required
so a for awareness Ella learn and listen
learn and listen learn and listen from
the oppressed so allies really you don’t
need to take affront you don’t have to
be in the front row you don’t need a
front row seat to be an ally you don’t
need a front row seat to someone else’s
oppression so listen and learn
so allies need to listen and learn the
second L leverage your privilege and I
add to that leverage your privilege and
your power so as I was saying earlier I
wasn’t leveraging my privilege if I
wasn’t even acknowledging that I had
privilege and so it’s so important no
matter where we are no matter what
social location we occupy what space we
occupy if we’re if we’re in a place
where we have some privilege and we have
some power is what we do with it we
don’t have to apologize for the
privilege that we hold we don’t have to
apologize for being in positions of
power it’s what we do with it that
really matters that’s where the
accountability comes in and then why
yield the floor you know sometimes when
allies are working with people who are
marginalized and when people empower
themselves and sometimes there’s a lot
of anger and people can be triggered by
that they can find themselves in a space
of discomfort around people’s anger
there’s a lot of social injustice that
ought to make us angry and we need to be
willing to just sit and listen and learn
and sometimes we need to listen and
learn through that place of anger and
know that that’s alright
and that is where courage comes in it
takes a lot of courage to be an ally it
takes a lot of courage to be willing to
just sit and listen it takes a lot of
courage to learn from the oppressed from
the marginalize it takes a lot of
courage to take a stand and fight for
right
at a time when maybe you’re alone maybe
you’re the only person speaking this
truth but it takes a lot of courage to
do that but I think you need to do it
and when we’re doing it we need to be
able to work with allies we need to pull
our allies in to help us in that fight
for rights it takes courage to be a
change leader if you think about it
maybe those who of you who are here who
already in leadership positions if you
want to change things it takes courage
to change things it takes so much
courage so I want to invite you to find
the places and the spaces and the people
find the things that give you courage
find the things that inspire you you
know one of the things that really
inspires me is actually my spirituality
spirituality gives me courage
faith over fear and actually I was in
church this morning I attend East
Preston United Baptist Church with
Pastor laQuita Porter and she’s had a
whole series since the beginning of
January on faith and one of the key
messages is faith over fear and that’s
the message I carry with me every single
day using that faith to overcome the
fear that I feel to be a change leader I
believe that we all need to lead the
change that you want to see in this
world you have to lead the change you
want to see not wait for someone else to
do it not wait for someone else to stand
up and be the change leader you witness
something you become aware of something
you analyze something lead the change
that you want to see and the final word
on this things change when we do
something when we don’t do anything we
can get be guaranteed that things will
continue as they are and if you’re
unhappy
with something that’s happening in your
world remember that things will change
when you do something about it thank you
[Applause]
so this past December I attended the
30th anniversary of the North End Parent
Resource Center and one of the people
that was there was Canada’s
parliamentary poet laureate dr. George
Eliot Clarke and he was reading some of
his poems and I said to him I said you
know I’d like to ask you to write a poem
about Viola Desmond that I want to read
in the Senate and and he did and I read
that poem on Wednesday International
Women’s Day and I deliberately did not
want to do it during Black History Month
yes she’s an African Nova Scotian she’s
also a woman so is that
intersectionality piece and she is
certainly one of the people that has and
continues to inspire me so I’ve asked
the organizers if I could read their
poem and share that with you here today
and the title on political economy or
the ballot of Viola Desmond it’s
impossible proof the $10 bill supporting
her face demonstrates crime pays but
first the heroine has to halt her she
has to be jailed because she didn’t pay
the penny tax required to sit where
Caucasians folks sit in that segregated
cinema blacks in 1946 were deemed unfit
to share the same seating at the
Roseland theater in New Glasgow and
we’re told some rolls are White’s only
who could withstand voila viola worth
her weight in gold Desmond was a
beautician but her change wasn’t
cosmetic she wouldn’t give two cents to
back racism that was strange it wasn’t
how most coloreds had to live Sonos nova
scotia swiftly saw her jailed tried her
very guilt not for breaking racist rules
but only because she failed to pay the
province that one cent the province was
taking to support whites only rules are
plenty as if New Scotland was South
Africa viola
convicted was fined $20 that’s her
beauty spot I tell you her two cents
made a real difference may change begin
to happen nine years before Rosa Parks
sparked the civil rights movement
stateside a century past civil war as an
entrepreneur she sought value and profit
in beauty sis Desmond did but she strove
for justice because it’s true beauty
turns ugly where justice is hid her bill
is disappointingly smooth a one can’t
feel her skirts scrapes and scabs that
she suffered to bring about a better day
whose dawn would usher in equality still
she’s the first Canuck femme and person
of color to see her face
integrate Canadian currency partisan of
justice ponder her interest rate from
two cents to ten dollars an increase of
fifty thousand percent also note her
royal pardon miracles don’t cease Royal
Mint is viola Desmond now find the
courage to be an ally in the fight for
rights in this age of uncertainty thank
you
you
[Applause]
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